Wendy's Smile

This is Wendy Wright at Asilomar, backlit by the bright ocean sunlight.

moonlit road

the old oil wells

for company 

Wendy Wright

This is one of the moon verses from the renku party in 2004.

This renku was called "Thistle Seeds."

A Record of the Renku

Each YT Haiku Retreat winds up with a bang on the last evening with the group-writing session

for a renku. Here we see Patrick Gallagher in his Renku Party Regalia as he videos the completed

renku several years ago, accompanied by Carol Steele.

Below is another renku from two years ago. Notice that in this style of renku there are 36 verses, which alternate between two and three lines. Certain links, like the blossom and moon verses, occur at specified positions. Participants write several links, which are submitted to the Renku Master, who chooses each link as we proceed. Each link is written on the display board as it is chosen. The whole event is a lot of fun and can get a quite rowdy.

So Good To See You; kasen renku

November 9, 2013

Asilomar Retreat

Pacific Grove, California

Written by Roger Abe, Mimi Ahern, Beverly Acuff Momoi,

Linda Papanicolaou, Michael Sheffield, David Sherertz,

Christine Lamb Stern and Alison Woolpert

Carol Steele, renku master

1) I knocked and knocked —

so good to see you again

acorn woodpecker

ra

2) through the branches

just a bite of chestnut moon

bam

3) plated pomegranates

and the heady smell

of mulled wine

ms

4) in the music room

so many vintage flutes

lp

5) dry zephyrs

moving sparse clouds

slowly across the sky

ds

6) the patio party startled

with the arrival of a toad

aw

7) wrestling with Proteus

who changes into

a giant robot

ra

8) a blind date arrives

in a rental car

cls

9) the parents ask him

“just exactly what is it

that you do?”

aw

10) come upstairs and

look at my etchings

cls

11) for hours on end

Henry David Thoreau

stared at the dust motes

cls

12) the calico in the window

cleaning her claws

bam

13) longing for peace

Syria impaled

on the cold moon

aw

14) gingerbread men

with all the heads bitten off

bam

15) at Urgent Care

the doctor on duty

knows all the regulars

bam

16) two tickets to see

the losing team

cls

17) cherry blossom rain

will it be yet another year

before the Dream Act passes?

aw

18) concentric colors

ring the vernal pool

ra

19) April Fool’s Day

there’s salt

in the sugar bowl

cls

20) new candles in holders

ready for the match

cls

21) the long-awaited

box arrives from

Amazon.com

lp

22) skipping down the street

the boy lands on every crack

bam

23) the old garden hose

unkinks again

spraying her face

ma

24) our slugs will only

drink imported beer

lp

25) in the early dawn

a single, piercing cry

jolts the calm

ds

26) could her jeans

be any tighter?

cls

27) after their annulment

sky typing

ten miles wide

bam

28) she draws the drapes

across the dirty windows

ma

29) a rumpled square

of moonlight

in the motorcycle shop

lp

30) new sake always inspired

the wandering poets

bam

31) invitation

to a feast of chanterelles

sautéed in butter

cls

32) even the atheist

joins hands for the prayer

cls

33) singing in unison

unexpected harmonies

raise goose bumps

ds

34) remember when we

reminisced into the night

lp

35) laughing

to be caught

in swirling cherry blossoms

aw

36) the koi leaps

into the shining wind

ra

(This renku was published in the 2014 membership anthology.)

Renku Laughter

At the end of each YT Haiku Retreat, we have a Renku Party!

We write a linked-verse poem according to a plan.

It is quite a bit of fun as you can tell from this photo!

Left to right: Carol Steele, Judith Schallberger and Wendy Wright.

moonstones

marry the sea’s rhythms—

stories in my palm

Judith Morrison Schallberger

To the sea . . .

To the sea, the sea! The new boardwalk at Asilomar during the YT Retreat in 2009.

on and on---endless---

this passage of shearwaters

---the summer sea

Patricia J. Machmiller

The Mockingbird Sings; 1997 Membership Anthology

Yuki Teikei Haiku Society, page 12.

A fox has changed himself

When we visited Japan in Cherry Blossom Time, we were also in the time of Young Leaves.

(Remember to use the Yuki Teikei website at youngleaves.org)

Hiji shiroki so no karine ya yoi no haru

The white elbow

of a priest who is dozing!

Dusk in spring.

  

Buson

Kindachi ni kitsune baketari yoi no haru

Into a nobleman

a fox has changed himself--

early evening of spring

  

Buson

Haiku Master Buson; Yuki Sawa and Edith M. Schiffert,

Heian, 1978, page 54.

Three Presidents

The women in this picture have all been presidents of the

Yuki Teikei Haiku Society!

Left to right: Patricia J. Machmiller, Alison Woolpert 

and in the photo, founder, Kiyoko Tokutomi.

This picture was taken at an Asilomar Haiku Retreat at which

we celebrated the publication of the Tokutomi's letters to each other. (LINK)

white breath

the passage of the spirit world

through the sipapu

Alison Woolpert

Wild Violets; Yuki Teikei Membership Anthology 2011, page 18.

Wikipedia information on the sipapu.

Catching Dreams

We usually try to include an afternoon of making art in each of our YT Retreats.

This is Wendy Wright's booklet made from paper decorated by blowing

small amounts of watercolor paint with a straw. See how perfect it is as a haiku-catcher?

first autumn rain . . .

dusting the dream-catcher

for a houseguest

Wendy Wright


Wild Violets; 
Yuki Teikei Haiku Society Member's Anthology 2011,
page 19.

Across the blue, blue ocean

During a YT Haiku Retreat, and looking west from Asilomar, towards Japan, birthplace of haiku.

Each of these haiku has a headnote which helps to place it in historical context; 

I have italicized these headnotes.

Air raids night after night

clear starlit sky

in freezing night, after the planes

roar has vanished

Ishibasho Hideno

(1909-1947)

  

Soldier of a defeated country . . .

  

autumn's hot sun

nowhere on his military cap

twinkle the stars

Ishibasho Hideno

  

Often seen in the street

   

to a redhead

"Hello!"--how depressing

this spring rain*

Ishibasho Hideno

*after the war, hungry children would call out, "hello" in English 
to American GIs in hopes of being given candy.

*****

I found the life story of this poet very moving because Kiyoshi Tokutomi, one of our founders (and an American citizen)

was in Japan at this same time, having been prevented 

by the war from returning from his schooling in Japan. 

He also contracted tuberculosis at this time

and suffered from the consequences the rest of his life.

And, with tuberculosis, one always remembers Shiki!

This Japanese woman haiku poet has only one book of poems, 

Sakura Koku (Cherry Blossoms Deep) 

which was published by her husband 

after her early death from tuberculosis, 

soon after World War II. 

I found her story in Far Beyond the Field: Haiku by Japanese Women; compiled and translated with an introduction by Makoto Ueda, Columbia University Press, 2003, Kindle location 2101. 
This excellent book is still in print 
and is also available on Kindle.

Under the Bright Sky

Even great pines can be beautifully trimmed in Japan. 

This is on the grounds of Matsuyama Castle, 2007.


Uraraka-ni/kemushi/wataru/ya/matsuno/eda

Under the bright sky
a hairy caterpillar crawls
on the pine tree's branch

Akutagawa Ryonosuki
(1892-1927)

Modern Japanese Haiku; an Anthology, Makoto Ueda,
University of Toronto Press, 1974, page 107.

Floating Petals

Japan in Cherry Blossom Time (2007) on our YT Haiku Society travels.

Petals carpeted the walkways and blew into corners!

yo no naka wa/ mikka minu ma ni/ sakura kana

Ah, this world of ours:

just three days I don't look out---

and cherry blossoms!

Oshima Ryota

(1718-1787)

Traditional Japanese Poetry; an anthology;

translated, with an Introduction by Steven D. Carter,

Stanford University Press, 1991, page 403.

A Platter of Persimmons

At one of the Yuki Teikei gatherings (I think it might have been a renku party.)

someone (I think it might have been Ann Bendixen)

brought a platter of persimmons, striking in their vividness.

So I have been looking tonight for some of the famous haiku by Shiki

about persimmons. This is from the World Haiku Review, Summer, 2013,

and gives us two English versions of the same haiku.

Maegaki (foreword) says: "Resting at a tea house of Horyuji Temple".

Kaki=persimmon/ kueba=as I eat/ kane=bell/ naru=rings/ nari=an adverb/ Horyuji=Horyuji Temple

as I eat a persimmon

the bell starts ringing

at Horyuji Temple 

Shiki

(version by Susumu Takiguchi)

I bite into a persimmon

and a bell resounds –

Horyuji 

Shiki

(tr. by Janine Beichman)

Bunraku by daylight

In Matsuyama in Cherry Blossom Time, we were treated to a bunraku lady in daylight. This shows her secret, a puppetmaster who makes her move. In the performance we saw later,

the drama was very moving; one completely forgot about the puppetmaster, who

does not show against the black backdrop on the dimly lighted stage.

If you ever get a chance to see this, be sure to go! It is an amazing art!

Kino kure kyo mata kurete yuku haru ya

Yesterday ended,

today again there will be an end--

spring is going

Buson

Yuku haru ya omotaki biwa no daki gokoro

The going of spring!

The heaviness of a mandolin

felt while it is held.

Buson

Haiku Master Buson, Yuki Sawa and

Edith M. Schiffert, Heian, 1978, both on page 57.

Amelia's beautiful coat

Amelia Fielden and Jerry Ball in the garden during haiku conference. Japan 2007.

Amelia is an Australian poet well known for her own volumes of tanka poetry.
Jerry is known for his shirt-pocket notebook for writing haiku whenever.

a dew-washed morning

light barely light

here is the chance

to begin afresh

to forgive then forget

Amelia Fielden

Simply Haiku: A Quarterly Journal of Japanese Short Form Poetry

Summer 2007, vol 5 no 2

Amelia Fielden is an Australian living near Sydney. She is a professional Japanese translator and holds a Master of Arts degree in Japanese Literature. To date, working sometimes with native speaker co-translators, sometimes solo, Amelia has produced eight books of contemporary Japanese tanka in translation; currently she is working on a ninth, with Dr.Kozue Uzawa, editor of Gusts (journal of Tanka Canada). A poet in her own right, four volumes of Amelia's original English-language tanka are in print, and a fifth is underway. (Note from Journal cited above.)

Looking towards the sunset

Looking toward the sunset (Japan is over there!)

on the Marin Headlands on the day we went there with Dr. Akito Arima,

here is Donnalynn Chase, 

who has made an amazing contribution on many of our special publications.

scent of dry grass

reminds me of old yearnings

still-not-yet-met

Donnalynn Chase

YTHS Menbership anthology, 2010

midsummer darkness -

mistakes show me how to be

the person I am

Donnalynn Chase

GEPPO, July/August 2005

Issa's fly

Near the boardwalk, Jerry Ball held out his hand and said, "Issa's fly!"

And then he let it fly. . .

a spring day in winter--

I go out for a walk

a fly comes along

Issa

  

I go back in

my thatched hut...

the fly does the same

Issa

Haiku and translations from David Lanoue's

website:  haikuguy.com

Half Finished Book

Here are Jerry Ball and Jim Arnold on the trip to Japan

for the haiku conference in 2007.

Not quite full 

this autumn moon - 

half finished book

Jim Arnold

(from a manuscript)

in front of the line

he seems to be the head duck

in charge of pure water

Jerry Ball

Precarious Footing

Jim Arnold took us on an outing from the Asilomar Retreat to this Cove on the Monterey Bay

during the last Retreat he attended before his sudden, untimely death.

I don't remember who was in the hoodie, or the blue cap,

but I know they were part of out group!

Insistent fledglings -- 

their voices finally dim 

at sunset

Ouzel

(Jim Arnold) 
from a manuscript

On a Pedestal

From our visit to Japan:this is another image of the statue seen here. It was a lovely garden!

mon o dete kojin ni ainu aki no kure

Going out the gate,

happening to meet an old acquaintance

this twilight in autumn.

Buson

Haiku Master Buson, 

Yuki Sawa and Edith M. Shiffert, 

Heian, 1978, page 109.

Autumn's Shadow

Another of the kimonoed ladies seen on our visit to Japan.

When I set

something down, there emerges

autumn's shadow

Takahama Kyoshi

(1874-1959)

Kiyoshi was from Matsuyama and inspired by Shiki.

He was the publisher of the influential magazine Cuckoo.

Modern Japanese Haiku; an anthology,

compiled, translated and with an introduction by Makoto Ueda, University of Toronto Press, 1976, page 57.